Skepticism

EVENTS

Do you know the person behind the tumblr “Creative Pooping”, who goes by the name Dallas Haugh?

If you do, please get in touch with him immediately and get him some help — he’s written what sounds an awful lot like a public suicide note today. Or it could just be a cry of despair. But he needs someone now.

The police in his hometown have been contacted, and I’ve heard one report that they reached him and found him safe. Everyone relax a little bit.

Dallas. If you happen to be reading the comments here I want you to know I’ve been to that very dark place too. And it is possible to come back. You clearly have passion for this. Make sure it stays around. Only in time can you see what you will contribute, what fears you will overcome and the amazing victories you will have. And you will have them.

Why don’t you forward the blog page to one of the people of his family in his FB page? There are several people wth the same surname… They are the best people to help him… and know where to contact him.

Have had a response from tumblr – they are reviewing the page and will decide whether to contact Dallas or the authorities. They also mentioned commenting on his blog and leaving details for a suicide prevention hotline. I don’t have a tumblr account, I see keysama has signal boosted.

I wouldn’t usually suggest this – but given the nature of this incident:
Wouldn’t it be prudent to pull this post now that the issue have been resolved? Or at least anonymise it (including removing the link)?

I understand the impulse, gnumann, but isn’t that adding to the stigma of suicide attempts? If Dallas decides to pull his/her original post, then it would be kind to pull this one down. Otherwise, it could be a help to anyone who reads the original and freaks out and goes looking for more info.

In addition to what Carlie said, this whole thread is a template for handling this sort of thing well. People who read it will have some idea of what to do if they find themselves faced with the same problem instead of just freezing.

Also, congratulations to whatever network alerted PZ to a link buried in a fast-moving thread. I noticed that only Martin Wagner commented directly on Haugh’s post, but that was a fast reaction from PZ given the time in Minnesota

I understand the impulse, gnumann, but isn’t that adding to the stigma of suicide attempts?

Frankly, protecting [redacted]’s privacy is more important than dealing with stigma, right now.

Leaving the information not-redacted is…kind of like forcing [redacted] to become an activist for “the cause”….immediately after a suicide attempt. And as important as fighting stigma is, can we please not force this upon zir, and definitely not right now?

At the very least, all new information discovered in these comments should probably be redacted.

Also, can we please stop with the online rubbernecking?

Zie’s in good hands; there’s nothing more we can do, other than support from afar, and afaik zie doesn’t owe us updates or anything like that.

if [redacted] decides to pull his/her original post, then it would be kind to pull this one down.

If involuntary hospitalization in [redacted-state] is anything similar to involuntary hospitalization up here in Massachusetts, I’d bet that [redacted] won’t have access to any internet-enabled device for a few days, so zie wouldn’t be able to pull the post even if zie wanted to.

skeptich reblogged this from creativepooping and added:
Yet another plusser under the shadow of anonymity making baseless allegations and committing libel.

*rageflail*

They ignored the clear and obvious suicide note, and instead focussed on one paragraph in which the blogger says Shermer also raped them… and then goes on to claim that the blogger is lying about that experience? How is a personal account of rape a “baseless allegation”? Did this “Skeptich” arsehole even read the fucking paragraph they’re focussing on?

Not only that, but “Skeptich” has nothing else on their Tumblr blog. This looks like their first post.

Does a new Tumblr blog always start with “Your Awesome Tagline” as the default tagline? ‘Cause I think maybe “Skeptich” created this account in response to Redacted’s suicide note. That would be pretty damn low.

Oh yes, as much as I disagree on the likelihood of nuclear war (not gonna happen) and grey goo (definitely not gonna happen).

I could see nuclear war happening within the next couple of decades. First, Russia continues to push further and further to their own brand of right-wing religiosity, which is on a par with Mormonism for transparent fraudulent claims. Putin goes out somehow — sudden natural death, political ouster, whatever. His successor pushed the religious stuff even harder to maintain unity. Eventually, they start passing laws like the current anti-gay law against anyone who isn’t Russian Orthodox. Since a lot of Russian Jews have left for Israel, they start scapegoating Jews (which is an established meme in Russian history already). Waning U.S. power combined with U.S. backing of Israel and the fact that Russia is good buddies with a lot of countries who don’t like Israel very much makes Israel a favorite target for their Two Minutes Hate, and eventually, someone disconnected with reality on a George-W.-Bush-like level lobs a nuke. This sets off the U.S., and when China sees nukes flying over the horizon they respond, and pretty soon everyone with a nuke is launching it on the basis that this is the last chance they’ll ever have to see if it actually works as advertised. (And that’s just one possibility. All it would really take to set everything off is one nuke being launched, if it were launched at the right target — it could even be a dud and that would make no difference because the whole point of M.A.D. was that the response was inevitable and swift.)

Sound far-fetched? Well, who, in (say) 1993 would have believed everything which happened in the U.S. over the next 20 years? We’re about 3 steps from turning into a kind of nightmare Orwellian spin on a banana republic thanks to a mixture of unprecedented corruption (from both of the major parties — Obama is the guy who decided not to prosecute anything the Bush administration or the banks did, remember) and right-wing religious idiocy (which is only mostly confined to the Republicans). None of that was immediately obvious in 1993. That Russia could go batsh*t insane in 20 years is plausible in comparison.

The speed and urgency with which everyone handled this is top notch! The individual in question clearly needs urgent psychiatric attention which it appears is now being received, based on the comments about hospitalization. So, so many people never make it to the hospital, and a shattered family is left behind to limp through life. You’ve all done a really wonderful thing today.

PZ, it’s ok if the individual in question is as mad as a wet cat at you today. In about 2 or 3 weeks, that view may change remarkably. Also, there’s a family out there somewhere that quite likely cannot thank you enough.

Yeah, I think I saw his comment/Tumblr and called the Sarasota Police within about ten minutes of him posting it, but I had no address, and only the information on his FB page to go on. So all the dispatcher could do at the time was promise they’d try to figure out where he was. I’m glad other people had more info and were able to get him tracked down and safe. Teamwork!

I’m sorry, I don’t know about this one, it confuses me. The person in question seems to be male, and yet there is a rape allegation against a heterosexual male here. I’m not a profiler, but I’m not aware of male sexual predators with a track record of going after women who also go after men. Does this bother anyone else, or am I missing a piece here?

This is not related to the person in question here and may be off topic, but as I understand it, there is quite a percentage of us humans who is attracted to both sexes or “all sexes” should we say or who go back and forth or are attracted to none whatsoever. Even the self-declared staunchest heteros or homos sometimes experiment or feel attracted to the sex they usually aren’t attracted to. And, if, on top of that, rape is not about sex but about domination and dominion, then there’s not much of a contradiction in a known hetero varying.

There is actually a bit more info about that on some of the links in his blog post, but I agree with PZ (HIVEMIND!); I wouldn’t normally be telling people not to get too hung up on sexual assault allegations, but in this case first and foremost is that he is hopefully getting help.

The “rape” was allegorical. A way to tie the author’s pain & suffering to a recent news story in a community that he felt some part of (hence the references to PZ and leaving the link to the letter on PZ’s blog).

I thank Martin, procrast*, and PZ for contacting the police. I feel that people should have the right to choose their own time, but 23 years old is just too damn young.

I think this thread can now be deleted to protect his privacy, as can the link to his tumbler/blog in the other thread.

Well done, everybody. On a very minor point, while he did describe PZ as ‘insufferable’ (and you can see his reasoning) he also said he couldn’t stay mad at him too long and strongly implied he saw him as being on the same side of the issue as himself. I may be over-reading this but his reference to PZ seemed to suggest that he thought he was generally right about stuff, in some ways awesome, but was exasperated by his on-line persona at it’s most acerbic.

Roquetin. No. It isn’t anywhere in the U.S. As to why the police would ‘apprehend’ Haugh, for Haugh’s own protection. It need not even have been an arrest. As for the rest of your comment, I’ll leave it to others who might cover it more constructively for you than I’m inclined.

Fuck, good work on this and lets hope he makes his way out of that horrible state of mind. Should be a bit easier to escape though with all this out-pouring of support + Goons can be pretty damn awesome at coming to the rescue. But that requires one to recognise the help that’s there and a major depressive episode is can screw you up and stop you from doing that unless you’ve got coping mechanisms :/

The “rape” was allegorical. A way to tie the author’s pain & suffering to a recent news story in a community that he felt some part of (hence the references to PZ and leaving the link to the letter on PZ’s blog).

…….Huh?

I think this would be a very good time to heed PZ’s “Don’t read too much into it” warning. His claim certainly doesn’t sound allegorical to me. I admit it seems strange as this accuser is male whereas prior accusers were female, but let’s not start trying to turn what sounds to me like an actual accusation into a bit of symbolic poetry or what not.

Is suicide a crime in Florida? If not, why would the police apprehend him? Anyway, I hope he survives his likely sentence in the looney bin.

It was, in fact, a crime in many states. AFAIK, no states have a law on the books that either can, or is enforced. It is still, to my knowledge, a crime to assist in any suicide.

Police can go on a ‘wellness’ check, and can determine if the person is an imminent threat to themselves or others and intervene if given reasonable suspicion. It’s not a crime, per se, but it’s still actionable (by removing the danger to themselves). Remember, the state can, and sometimes does, prevent people from hurting themselves by institutionalizing them for a temporary period.

I’m not judging this ability by the state: it likely does get misused at times, but it can also save lives at times.

Hello. I’m out of the hospital now, relatively safe, and just want to clarify a few things. I am going to take a break from responding for a few days after this.

There is the possibility that he is Trans and was still presenting as female when the encounter with Schermer happened.

I am a cisgender bisexual male.

The “rape” was allegorical.

This is not the case.

No, I don’t know him — he singles me out as “insufferable”, so I’m no help, but I’d rather not see him hurt in any way.

I apologize for being a bit blunt, but I was in a bad mood (obviously), and wanted to emphasize that this wasn’t some bizarre ideological conspiracy, but an actual thing that was (and is) happening. Please make a big deal out of it.

I may write more about this in the future.

FYI, the post appears to have been taken down now.

That was not my decision; my brother took it down, mostly out of concern for family members. I am going to wait a few days to recover from the experience before we decide if to repost it (I’m personally leaning towards it, simply out of principle, but I do have to address the concerns of my friends and family, of course).